Note. Vaccination is acknowledged to be one of the causes of Infantile Paralysis by a recent medical authority on this subject, Dr. Oskar Vulpius, in a book published by Wm. Wood & Company of New York, 1912.—C. M. H.
MR. LOYSTER’S CONCLUSIONS
It has been the intent of the writer to present facts rather than to participate in a controversy that is still unsettled after a century of argument; but as a result of the investigation of over fifty vaccination disasters and the almost constant study of vaccination literature for several months, it seems that the following conclusions are warranted and should be frankly stated:
(1) Vaccination has been the cause, directly or indirectly, of the death of at least fifty children in New York State in 1914. The record herewith printed gives only the cases occurring in rural or suburban districts. Neither the time nor means were at hand to make a canvas of the cities. While only 27 fatalities are here recorded, some of which are not clearly proven, it is believed that were the figures from the cities obtainable, possible errors in the list would be more than offset and enough reported to swell the total to the number given.
(2) In addition to the deaths an appalling trail of illness has followed vaccination. It has been entirely beyond the scope of this publication to print even a partial record of these cases.
(3) The cost in illness and destruction of child life is entirely out of proportion to the amount of protection against smallpox that is attained or needed. There were but three deaths from smallpox in the entire State, including Greater New York, in 1914. In one rural district twenty miles in diameter, where four children died from vaccination, there has not been a single case of smallpox within the memory of any person now living.
(4) Vaccination of children is wrong in principle, is not in harmony with the trend of the best medical practice and should be abandoned. It is being more clearly understood every day that many of the serious ills of later years are directly traceable to the so-called children’s diseases. Whereas the tendency was once to encourage the having of such diseases so as to “have them over with,” the tendency now is to keep the child just as free from them as can be, and postpone them to as late an age as possible. A normal vaccination is as serious as some of the diseases of childhood, without taking into further account its sinister possibilities.
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Note. I have a few hundred copies of Mr. Loyster’s valuable pamphlet now in hand, and can furnish full copies, on request, for ten cents each to cover cost and postage. The substance of the pamphlet is, however, embodied in the preceding pages.—C. M. H.